England vs New Zealand 8th November

First topic message reminder :

Thought we might as well have a thread as we'll have the team announcements soon.

I see Myler is out of contention with a mild hamstring strain. Not serious enough to warrant a call-up for Cipriani or Burns, though. Attwood's wife is due to give birth any day, so that clouds the picture a little on his availability.

Hansen is apparently considering Carter and SBW for Twickenham, injury permitting.

England team to play New Zealand

M Brown (Harlequins); S Rokoduguni (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), K Eastmond (Bath), J May (Gloucester) ; O Farrell (Saracens) , D Care (Harlequins); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), D Attwood (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton), T Wood (Northampton), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: R Webber (Bath), M Mullan (Wasps), K Brookes (Newcastle), G Kruis (Saracens), B Morgan (Gloucester), B Youngs (Leicester), G Ford (Bath), A Watson (Bath).

All Blacks (test caps in brackets)

15. Israel Dagg (45)
14. Ben Smith (35)
13. Conrad Smith (83)
12. Sonny Bill Williams (20)
11. Julian Savea (30)
10. Aaron Cruden (36)
9. Aaron Smith (36)
8. Kieran Read (70)
7. Richie McCaw (c) (134)
6. Jerome Kaino (54)
5. Sam Whitelock (60)
4. Brodie Retallick 34)
3. Owen Franks (65)
2. Dane Coles (24)
1. Wyatt Crockett (33)

Reserves:

16. Keven Mealamu (121)
17. Ben Franks (39)
18. Charlie Faumuina (24)
19. Patrick Tuipulotu (5)
20. Liam Messam (37)
21. TJ Perenara (8)
22. Beauden Barrett (26)
23. Ryan Crotty (10)

Penalty try?

Yellow here, must be. Should have finished that break off.

No yellow card?

England getting a few 60:40 decisions in this game.

Yeah, the kiwi player that put a shoulder into the England's players head

Ebop, so are New Zealand

Or whitelocks try

Prime example there ebop

White locks non try where an England touched it down before

Yeah, it was marginal I agree, no probs mate. it wasn't awarded so we move on. Just saying.

Yussss, get in there.

Great wet weather rugby. Composure, patience, skill, structure. Very good try.

How many times were NZ off their feet in the build up to the try? No consistency

Was he short?

That was odd, naughty Owens. That was jo'burg all over again.

Nope, not even close

Think it was the officials that had a worry by the sounds of it

One thing that has been shocking has been the communication between the reffing team.

Think Owens had had issues with his mic all game

Yeah, weather looks pretty tricky to ref and play

This game once again highlights how we need to work on taking our chances

Try here and it's all on!

Why scrum and use up all the remaining time? Stupid

Shouldn't have went for the scrum not enough time

Holy crap.

Yellow?

That's why tj

Odd call that

Given how badly England played 3 point loss is surprising.

Poor decision making in their 22 costs us again

Closer than I thought to be honest, we still drift in and out with our intensity levels and we still need to on our finishing.

I still hate Barnes.

nathan wrote:That's why tj

Not enough time left to win it. that series of scrums and pens started with 5 mins on the clock

Well done abs.
England did well also.

Aside from the 3rd summer test we're just a little bit apart.

Why is it I worry about next week more....

Awful 2nd half.

Driving maul after driving maul then dreadful kicking. Really disappointed.

If we can only lose by three at Twickenham playing as badly as that at times, then I suppose I should be happy.

The thing is, I think if we play as badly as that at times, we will always lose to good opposition, no matter what the margin.

Gutted by the loss, lots of what could have beens.

Everytime i watch a game played at Twickenham I begin to wonder if people there actually know the rules of the game. I do not understand the booing, that was a clear try, the last New Zealand one.

Tj, they had more chance of getting a pen try than running one in

nathan wrote:Tj, they had more chance of getting a pen try than running one in

But thats useless when yo are down by ten and use up all the time

Will played to the Kiwis in the 2nd half I think. Result ended up being what I expected unfortunately. England not too far off now though I feel - not a bad place to be a yearish out from world cup.

Yet again we were let down by our kicking game.

You have to applaud the NZ defence too. It was so strong and physical in the first half,

They didn't use up all the time, there was time for the kick off still. In the second half England wasn't making any inroads into the New Zealand defence and so it was the safer option.

If we can find someone who can kick the ball we might be fairly decent.

England lucky not to get pinged for time-wasting in the last 5 mins tho.

Care - average.
Brown - bit poor.
May - needs to add a bit more than just speed.

protea438 wrote:Everytime i watch a game played at Twickenham I begin to wonder if people there actually know the rules of the game. I do not understand the booing, that was a clear try, the last New Zealand one.

Think there was confusion caused by a replay in which advertising lines made the try look short. I'm sure the crowd at Twickenham have the same grasp of the rules as in national stadiums elsewhere. They're like any other partisan crowd who will show disapproval if they sense unfairness.

I don't think we'll be ready for next year. World Cup after that we could do really well

Cares kicking was off form today, need youngs to get back in to full form again

Mullan and Webber to start against SA?

nathan wrote:I don't think we'll be ready for next year. World Cup after that we could do really well

You could well be right but don't you think that with a few missing players returning the balance could further shift?

nathan wrote:They didn't use up all the time, there was time for the kick off still. In the second half England wasn't making any inroads into the New Zealand defence and so it was the safer option.

~Safer but could never lead to the win

So, why were we so poor in the second half?

Forget all the wet dreams about scoring more points in the first half, I want to know why 15 Englishmen suddenly looked overpowered by 14 All Blacks after having spent so long competing vigorously when on less equal terms.